Editor's note: Wang Ye was finally persuaded during the second period of admission at Lakeside University. Before that, he thought it was a business school and it was a mixed circle. After the graduation, he told Lei Fengwang (searching for "Lei Feng Net" public concern) : "Recently Ma Yun teacher brainwashed deeper, mission, vision, values, is the three components of the strategy."
Oral | Wang Ye
Interviewing and organizing | Liu Ye
(Wang Ye is at the boating class at Lakeside University)
Seven
In fact, before Xiaomi sent us an invitation, Sequoia has already given us TS.
At the beginning of 2014, I met Zhou Yi (a partner of Sequoia Capital China Fund) at a meeting of Entrepreneur State. He especially liked to balance cars and went back to Shen Nanpeng, the founder and managing partner of Sequoia Capital China Fund. Speaking, but the Investment Commission did not pass at that time, saying that it had not yet seen the right time.
However, Li Jianwei has been following this matter. He was still the vice president of Sequoia. Later, he came to me together with Prof. Li Zexiang and asked some circumstances. They felt that the timing of the investment was up. Go back and talk with Neil. For a moment.
This matter has always been the highest point, I listened to him, when Neil gave Li Jianwei a response is All in. So at that time we actually got the promise of Sequoia, and the quotation given to us was much higher than Xiaomi.
At that time, the main line of investment for Xiaomi was still the mobile phone peripherals, mobile power, headphones, bracelets, and stereos. Ninebot was one of the early and relatively unrelated things that they invested.
In May 2014, Xia Yongfeng (director of Xiaomi's ecological chain) first came to us. He evaluated it and felt that the risk of the balance car was a bit large. It was uncertain whether we could make a good enough product with millet-style prices. Later he handed over the matter to Tommy (Tang Mingyong, senior technical director of Xiaomi's ecological chain). The background of Don was the old man of the motorcycle. The culture of the engineers of the motorcycle influenced him and he had a desire for adventure.
He was touched by one of our details. When Dajiu was regressing, if the speed exceeded 3km/h, it would constantly vibrate and alarm, prompting you to pay attention to safety when reversing.
This is a small security detail. After Tang Mingyong experienced this, he felt that the team had extensive industry experience and eliminated his doubts about balancing vehicle safety. He later told us that this team should be able to do a very mature job.
In fact, Dajiu had already sold well at the time and the dealers dispatched cars to the factory gate waiting for delivery. I also heard that someone wanted to give us a rebate and wanted more. The entire factory is busy and only one day off every month. At that time, the product was sold but we were very proud.
In 2014, we sold more than two billion yuan. Before Xiaomi invested, the net profit of that year was more than 20%, which was quite high. At that time, we were actually not short of money. So how do I deal with this big brother, I am a little hesitant. It is a word spoken by Liu De (head of the Xiaomi ecological chain): How to fight greediness in the heart? It is to see what you want.
In fact, we have not clearly positioned ourselves. We did not set goals until the time we did Xiaojiu: We want to make innovations in the global short-term NO.1. Later, we have a vision inside and we haven’t spoken out yet: I hope every earth People use at least one of our wheels before he grows up.
If we do not talk to Xiaomi at that time, we are very likely to be in a state of dying for the moment.
Such a high profit is visible to all people. At that time we have foreseen that we will surely attract a large number of cottage manufacturers to come in. High-profit items will never last long, and they will sell more than we earn. More important.
After the big cake, the total amount did not decrease.
The price of this product must be beaten so that everyone can afford it. At this time, whoever can better help us achieve this goal is obviously Xiaomi.
But at the time, I was still skeptical, because I firmly believe that this thing should be internationalized, and that the help of Sequoia in our internationalization will be even greater. Lao Gao said, first of all, it is necessary to set fire to China and Xiaomi’s help will be even greater. Big. We did not dispute this issue, we just discussed it. In my opinion, these two are good choices.
The investment was finalized in August and September and it was quite fast. At that time, we said that Sequoia is waiting there. If you don’t want to vote, Sequoia will vote for us. This is probably the meaning of this, passed to Ray. Ray is always an engineer and a very intelligent and strategic investor.
First, we expressed our trust and goodwill towards Xiaomi. Second, someone now is willing to vote for us and it is a top fund. We prefer to ask Xiaomi's choice first. If Xiaomi is willing to come in, this round of redwood will not enter. Come.
Sequoia is a big pattern of funds. In fact, we later paid a lot of compensation and said I'm sorry, because whatever I say now is unintentional, the outside world may feel that it is intended to let Sequoia lift the chair. Later, Sequoia came in, buying old shares, and invested 16 million in the early stages and sold it to Sequoia. In fact, we did not get that money. At that time, we were very happy to convince Zhong Lu that it must be sold to Sequoia.
Eight
Dealing with first-tier suppliers is very difficult. Two billion a year, for the top suppliers is a small customer, just to find an agent to be sent. After Xiaomi's endorsement, everyone will realize that this company may have to do something big and it has to be uplifted. The most important thing is that the top suppliers are willing to send people to cooperate with you.
If the supplier has a team to support you, they have an engineer, a project manager, and when you have a problem, he will help to solve it. This will be helpful for the later production forecast and capacity ramp up. Fast and good.
At the end of last year, our production line was capable of 200 units a day, but today's production line is capable of 460 units.
We also trust Millet's launch site. He has enough resources and ability to sell this product. At the time, I felt that it had more than one billion mobile phone users. Assuming there was a conversion rate of 1%, that is, more than one million, I was not worried about this, so I didn’t pay attention, but I didn’t pay attention or did not mean that I didn’t care Who does not care about it?
Before Xiaomi came in, we sold more than 20,000 units a year. In the first year, we estimate that we could sell 500,000 to 1 million units, a growth of several tens of times. In fact, the distribution capacity did not exceed expectations because our expectations at the beginning were very high.
nine
There is a problem that we have considered for a long time, that is, we are afraid to lower the value of the brand, but we opened a conference in 2015 to acquire Segway.
In fact, when we first contacted Segway, we wanted to seek authorization and cooperation. Because we can see that our products are very complementary, one 2B, one 2C, one big one small, one industrial, one civilian, durability is not so high, but flexible and light, both parties feel that business There is complementarity.
They are actually very nervous about us. This can be felt from the process of talks. First, he is willing to talk about it. When he says the second time, he has to slacken and worries. Some things cannot be explained.
He doesn't care about you and he won't be upset or he will either ignore you or give you. They have no feeling of arrogance from beginning to end and may even be shocked by us. In 2014, they actually sold more than 20,000 balance cars.
Their channel breadth is much higher than ours. Brand awareness is much higher than ours. We don't sell as many as we do.
We talked very sporadic in the early days and we didn't have a contact until we had decided to vote for us. At that time, we only ran to talk to them. At that time, there was a catalyst, that is, Segway initiated a lawsuit and told several Chinese balance car companies. We, Le Bank, and Easy Step.
The purpose of the lawsuit initiated by him is to promote deeper cooperation. Before we all talked on the e-mail phone, we later went to the United States to face the interview and asked him. What does this mean?
At that time, when I went with Lao Gao, there were two sentences. First, we would respond to the lawsuit and tell the end. We will tell you that we have investment now, not bad money; the second thing has the opportunity to cooperate and cooperate. We pushed the plan or business cooperation, but after that meeting, the president of Segway sent an email to us. They did not seem interested in the cooperation, but they were very interested in the acquisition.
This was a coincidence. We did not expect that he would be willing to sell it. Now think about it.
At the time, Segway's boss was not its founder. He was not a person who had feelings for Segway. He was a professional buyer and an expert in mergers and acquisitions. He took over 45 companies and sold 43 of them. At the time, he had two companies in his hands: Fisker, the electric car company competing with Tesla, and the other was Segway.
Segway’s management team at the time also very much hoped that we would buy because they knew that the boss was not a person who wanted to make Segway a good job.
Rod Keller was the president and professional manager of the then Segway boss. He convinced the boss that we were a good buyer and willing to pay a premium. We were the best and most favorable choice for Segway.
Segway is also a company that once dreamed of being very great. It has developed relatively slowly over the past five years. Everyone is a bit disappointed and some of the entrepreneurial veterans have left. When we do due diligence for mergers and acquisitions, we can feel their goodwill and are willing to come in fresh blood.
On the day of the merger and acquisition, we also opened a video conference. The two teams officially met in public. At that time, the atmosphere was very good. Everyone looked forward to the future.
At the time, Segway's COO Mary, an employee who had entered when Segway was founded, had worked as a production manager, had been an administrative officer, and had done quality control. He retired earlier this year. He was very touched by what he said at the time, that is to say: When I was about to leave this team, I could see that the team had hope of new life. He felt very happy.
He has feelings for Segway. He stayed there for 15 years.
ten
In 2000, I met with Lei Jun. At that time, I was still a sophomore at Beihang. He came to make a presentation of Jinshan. I was sitting in the first row and I was signed by him. I was very impressed because I worshipped Bo Bojun very much.
I think Lei Jun's entire millet road was formed when he was in Jinshan. At that time, he had a "Red Genuine Storm," and two or three hundred sets of software sold 39 yuan and sold 1 million units. At that time, he already knew that. Low prices are a big killer.
After Millet voted for us, I went to see Lei Jun’s office together with Lao Gao. At that time, I said, Lei Zeng met you before. He hesitated for a moment. He must have felt a bit embarrassed. Forgot to say this person. He said something kind and he was sorry, but he really couldn’t remember when he saw it. Seemed to have seen it. .
In fact, whether you know him or whether he is interested in him, he is modest and polite from the heart and will not feel like a big cow. But sometimes he is also very awkward to do things.
For example, the design started with the small ninety-one is putt, that is, when not riding, you can push away. The design was taken away by him. The reason was that it was not succinct and concise. In fact, we actually resisted this because we knew that users need this, but according to his point of view, this is not a good idea. Do not be too practical and use it as a fun toy.
Lei Chaochao loved playing. He told me that he had been injured in skiing several times. Tuck (Founding Partner of Capital Partners) also said that Ray is always crazy and is crazy when skiing.
eleven
Fun is important.
Robots certainly started with fun. Before academic education at Beihang, there was actually a very positive view: The driving force of science is curiosity, not practicality. China's general education, that is, education before higher education, is based on practicality. It is a pragmatism that speaks of what this thing can solve. There is a gold house in the storytelling book.
The real science actually comes from curiosity. At that time, we listened to a lecture. It was a lecture given by academician Li Lan. He had worked for NASA for a while and was a Columbia shuttle. He talked about his work experience at NASA. He said that he was mainly curious.
This kind of person is really an ideal person, a true scientist, and he will tell why the first Mars probe was called Curiosity, then Opportunity, Spirit. I am very grateful to them. This group of people does not have any pursuit of money. They all have a high number of people who are forbidden. The pursuit of things is very high.
My current goal is also very high - I hope that every earthman will use at least one wheel before he grows up. I think the day I never realized, but this goal will continue to give me some excitement, let me find different levels of fun.
Expand reading:
Wang Ye (Reading): From Asimov to Ninebot
Wang Ye readme (medium): That year, we want to buy Segway
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